Madame Bailey all the summer. But perhaps she
will come back--now that M'sieur has returned." He really could not
resist that last thrust.

"Left Lacville!" repeated Chester incredulously. "But that's impossible!
It isn't more than three hours since we said good-bye to her at the
station. She had no intention of leaving Lacville _then_. Do you say
you've received a letter from her?"

"Yes, M'sieur."

"Will you please show it me?"

"Certainly, M'sieur."

M. Polperro, followed closely by the Englishman, trotted off into his
office, a funny little hole of a place which had been contrived under the
staircase. It was here that Madame Polperro was supposed to spend her
busy days.

M. Polperro felt quite lost without his wife. Slowly, methodically, he
began to turn over the papers on the writing-table, which, with one
chair, filled up all the place.

There had evidently been a lovers' quarrel between these two peculiar
English people. What a pity that the gentleman, who had very properly
returned to beg the lady's pardon, had found his little bird flown--in
such poetic terms did the landlord in his own mind refer to Sylvia
Bailey.

The pretty Englishwoman's presence in the Villa du Lac had delighted M.
Polperro's southern, sentimental mind; he felt her to be so decorative,
as well as so lucrative, a guest for his beloved hotel. Mrs. Bailey had
never questioned any of the extras Madame Polperro put in her weekly
bills, and she had never become haggard and cross as other ladies did who
lost money at the Casino.

As he turned over the papers--bills, catalogues, and letters with which
the table was covered, these thoughts flitted regretfully through M.
Polperro's mind.

But he had an optimistic nature, and though he was very sorry Madame
Bailey had left the Villa du Lac so abruptly, he was gratified by the
fact that she had lived up to the ideal he had formed of his English
guest. Though Madame Bailey had paid her weekly bill only two days
before--she was en pension by the day--she had actually sent him a
hundred francs to pay for the two days' board; the balance to be
distributed among the servants....

There could surely be no harm in giving this big Englishman the lady's
letter? Still, M. Polperro was sorry that he had not Madame Polperro at
his elbow to make the decision for him.

"Here it is," he said at last, taking a piece of paper out of the drawer.
"I must have put it there for my wife to read on her retu